


Cauterize

by Write_To_You



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Extended Scene, F/F, F/M, Gunshot Wounds, Hospitalization, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Reveal, Injury, Points of View, Post-Season/Series 05 Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:40:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24913990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Write_To_You/pseuds/Write_To_You
Summary: Follow William, Kelly and Kara’s individual perspectives on what happens after Kara leaves a shot William under the care of Lena.
Relationships: Alex Danvers & Kara Danvers, Alex Danvers/Kelly Olsen, Kara Danvers/William Dey, William Dey & Kelly Olsen
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	Cauterize

**Author's Note:**

> This honestly started out as just William’s side of the story after he got shot, inspired by his worry for Kara right before she accepted his offer of a date. 
> 
> But then I switched to Kara’s perspective and found myself almost starting from the beginning. And then I was like, oh, it could be cool if I did something where William, Kara and Kelly (who was very involved in the plot of this story), each had a separate POVs describing virtually the same events.
> 
> There are some repeated conversations, as a warning. I did try, however, to brush through them quickly and put enough personal “feelings” to vary the content, as well as add some scenes unique to each section.

_**William**_

Considering the god-caused mayhem around National City, it wasn’t hard for William to get out of going to the hospital. Sure, he’d been shot in the chest, but actual _buildings_ were crumbling. And besides, Supergirl had cauterized the wound. He’d be fine. At the very least, he’d be fine enough to push through until he found Kara.

Lena Luthor, who was apparently working alongside Supergirl, had said Kara was in a ‘safe place’. That didn’t tell William much, though it did give him some slight peace of mind, so he gave Kara a call.

“Kara, it’s William,” he began when the answering machine came on. “Things went south with Eve and.... I’m worried that you might be in trouble. Please let me know where you are as soon as possible or- or at least that you’re safe. I lo-” He broke off. _‘Slow down, Dey,’_ he thought, and finished the message with a harried, “I mean, I hope you’re alright. Talk to you shortly.”

William hung up and started pacing. He had taken a taxi to a deserted back road of National City, unsure of where else to go. His apartment was probably compromised, and if he went to the hospital he wasn’t sure when he’d be able to get _out_ again. The adrenaline was leaving him, though, and his chest was starting to throb again. He didn’t have anyone to call, anyone he could even _trust_ except Kara and-

Kelly. 

Now, Kelly was an idea. Not only did he know he could count on her, but she was dating Kara’s sister, and if anyone knew where his girlfriend was it would be Alex. 

William pulled out his phone again, anxiously checked his messages and missed calls just in case he hadn’t heard the notification alert and it hadn’t popped up when he’d opened his phone, and called Kelly. 

She picked up on the second ring. “William?”

“Kelly, thank _God_.” William hadn’t realized how worried he’d been about her until he felt the relief hearing her voice brought. 

“Where are you right now?” Kelly demanded. “You dropped off the grid after you went after Eve. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” William said, brushing off the concern. “Are you? You’re in a safe location?”

“Uh....” Kelly hesitated a moment. “Yeah, I’m- I’m safe.”

“I’m trying to find Kara,” William said. “She isn’t answering her phone. I’m worried she might be in the same danger as me for following this story. Have you heard from her? Or know where she is? Or maybe Alex does?”

Another pause. William’s eyebrows furrowed, the investigative journalist in him immediately picking up that something was off about this whole situation. There was something that he was _missing_ , something about Kara. He just wasn’t sure what it was yet.

“Kara... no, I don’t know where she is,” Kelly replied after a moment. “I’m not actually sure where Alex is, either. Where are you right now? Are you safe?”

“I’m not.... _unsafe_ ,” William replied with intentional crypticness. “I’m not really sure _where_ I am right now. Out of harms way, I suppose.”

His bullet wound throbbed and William gritted his teeth. Either he was going to have to find Kara soon or he was going to need to get himself to a hospital without making sure she was alright. 

“Look, William...” Kelly hesitated again. “Can I trust you?”

William blinked, thrown. “Of course,” he replied immediately. “I trust you, Kelly, or else I wouldn’t have called.”

“Good.” There was yet _another_ pause from the other end. “Right now, I’m in a secure facility that we call the Tower. I... I work with Supergirl, William. Right now, she and Alex are both in the field. But the Tower is secure and- and I think you should wait it out there, too.”

William, a little thrown but this sudden rush of information, took a second to formulate an answer. “I- ok,” he managed after a second. He almost asked if that was where Kara was, but Kelly had said she hadn’t seen her so that wouldn’t make any sense. “Where is it?”

Kelly sent him the location and William hailed another taxi to head back into the heart of the city. He found the address and then found _Kelly_ , who was waiting for him outside the building. Her eyes dropped to his blood-stained dress shirt and her eyebrows went up. “What-”

“It’s a long story,” William cut her off. He was admittedly starting to feel a bit woozy, and was hoping that this Tower place had somewhere to sit. Off in the distance, there was the sound of an explosion. “Should we go inside?”

Kelly led the way up. What at first seemed to be a normal office quickly turned into a sleek, professional room that could only be described as a superhero base. There was, thankfully, a couch, and William took a heavy seat.

“So...” he began after a moment of just staring around him. “You’re connected with the Superfriends, huh?”

“Mostly through Alex,” Kelly said. “She worked in the... government, and developed some connections.” She shifted a little in her own chair, uncomfortable. “I don’t know how much I should tell you. I don’t even know if I should have brought you here. But I- I think you’ve proved yourself...”

“Worthy?” William suggested with a quick smile.

“Yeah,” Kelly agreed.

She tilted her head a little and stole another quick glance at his bloodied shirt. “Hey, are you sure you don’t need any sort of medical attention?” she asked. “Did you get...?”

“Shot,” William confirmed. “Supergirl found me and cauterized the wound. I’ll head to the hospital after all of this is over, but.... right now I just need to be on my feet. Make sure that I can get up and go if I’m... needed.”

“If _Kara_ needs you,” Kelly corrected with a faint smile. “As heroic as that is, William, Kara can really take care of herself. I don’t think she’d want you refusing medical attention just to make sure you could rush to her rescue.”

William shrugged, lips pinching a little. “I’ll worry about myself when I hear from _her that_ she’s alright.” 

They waited. William dozed off at one point but was immediately jerked away when his phone began buzzing on the coffee table. He lunged for it, barely restraining a groan of pain behind his teeth, and felt all the breath leave his chest when he saw that it was Kara’s contact on the screen.

“Kara!” he cried the second he picked up. “Thank God. I was so worried about you.”

“Hey, I’m fine, I’m fine,” Kara told him hurriedly. “Um... I’ve been... hiding...?”

“Yeah, me too,” William said. He glanced towards the seat that Kelly had occupied but found her gone. He frowned a little, having wanted to ask her if they could bring Kara to the Tower, too. Did she know about her sister’s (and her sister’s girlfriend’s) involvement with the Superfriends? Was _she_ involved with the Superfriends? 

“Where are you right now?” William asked instead of sharing his location. “I’ll come to you.”

“Um, aren’t you in the hospital?” Kara demanded.

William frowned. “How did you know I-”

“Lena,” she interrupted. “Lena.... contacted me. Told me what happened with Eve. And that you got shot so, again, you should be in the hospital.”

“I will, I will, I promise.” William shook his head a little. “But I’m not, right now, which means that I’m free to come find you. Send me your location, alright? There’s safety in numbers.”

“I-” Kara hesitated for a second. “Ok, ok. I’m at my apartment, with Alex and Nia and Brainy. Have you- have you met Brainy? He worked with my sister.”

And, therefore, probably had something to do with the Superfriends as well. William frowned a little, starting to notice a pattern. “I’m on my way,” he replied. “I’ll be there as soon as possible.”

He got up and ran for the Tower exit, caught yet _another_ cab, and was at Kara’s apartment in under twenty minutes. When he knocked on the door, it swung open to reveal Kara herself.

The relief at seeing her, completely unharmed and untouched save for a few smudged of dirt on her face, gave William such a rush it almost made him dizzy. He hurried through the doorway and pulled her into a hug. “I’m so glad you’re alright,” he said in a low voice. “You have no idea how worried I was.”

He heard Kara let out a soothing murmur and she reached up to rub his back. “Hey, I’m okay,” she said. “We’re all okay.”

When William pulled away from her, he finally saw the small crowd that was in Kara’s apartment. Alex and, to his surprise, _Kelly_ , were each in a chair. Nia was sitting on the couch, and there was an unfamiliar, green skinned alien very close next to her. He didn’t look well. 

“Um.... William, I think you know almost everyone,” Kara introduced haphazardly. She waved a hand at the green alien. “That’s Brainy, he’s... fine? Kind of. Um...”

“Hello,” William said, waving awkwardly. 

“Sorry I just kind of... left you at the Tower,” Kelly replied with a wince. “Alex told me where she was and I wasn’t really thinking straight.”

William nodded, knowing the feeling. Kara headed towards the group and took a chair, waving him towards the free spot on the couch. It was about at that moment that Nia looked up. “Hey, Willi- hang on, are you bleeding?”

Kara glanced up sharply. William’s own gaze drifted downward towards his still blood-soaked dress shirt. He opened his mouth to tell Nia that it was old blood stains, but then he saw the paint-like splatter of red expanding outward. 

Now that he thought about it.... his body was _numb._

“William?” Kara asked, rising a few inches out of her chair. 

William tried to take a step, but world tilted and turned to black. 

_**Kelly**_

Being cast away to the Tower wasn’t ideal, but Kelly understood. She didn’t have any powers. She couldn’t execute any hand-on-hand contact to save her life (literally). She had some technical abilities and a major in psychology, which was great in her field but pretty useless _in_ the field. 

That didn’t mean that she wasn’t worried. She was frantic to hear any signs that Alex, and everyone else, was ok, and she would take any distraction available. 

That distraction ended coming in the form of a call from William Dey. When Kelly’s phone lit up with his contact she wasn’t sure what to think, but she was relieved at the very least to hear from him. She picked up.

“Kelly, thank _God_ ,” William said immediately. 

Kelly thought she heard a car rushing by and frowned. “Where are you right now? You dropped off the grid after you went after Eve. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” William replied hurriedly, in a tone that wasn’t very convincing. “Are you? You’re in a safe location?”

Kelly glanced around her at the secure walls of the Tower. “Uh... yeah, I’m safe.”

“I’m trying to find Kara,” William went on, almost steamrolling over the end of her sentence. “She isn’t answering her phone. I’m worried she might be in the same danger as me for following this story. Have you heard from her? Or know where she is? Or maybe Alex does?”

“Kara....” Kelly resisted the urge to groan. She really wasn’t good at this part of being a Superfriend. “No, I don’t know where she is. I’m not exactly sure where _Alex_ is, either.” _Unfortunately_ , she added wordlessly. Then, “Where are you right now? Are you safe?”

“I’m not _unsafe_ ,” William replied. “I’m not really sure where I am right now. Out of harms way, I suppose.”

Kelly paused again. She was about to make a decision that might get her into some pretty big Superfriends trouble. But William was a target, more so than most, and it was because of them. She had to let him in on at least part of the secret.

So she filled him in about her association with Supergirl and the Tower and brought him to her. It maybe wasn’t the smartest move to take without asking the permission of any of her team members (especially Kara), but they were all having to make choices on the fly today.

When William arrived at the Tower, Kelly was shocked at the sight of him. His appearance was _ragged_ , hair mussed and face haggard, not to mention the giant blood stain on his dress shirt. “What-?” she started, wanting to know what had happened.

William cut her off, though. “It’s a long story. Should we go inside?”

Kelly led him through their cover room and then into the Tower itself, bringing them both into the seating area because she was worried that William might collapse otherwise. He had a few questions about the Superfriends and her connection with them, but she brushed them off as all being through her girlfriend.

Speaking of her girlfriend... it had now been a full hour since she’d heard anything from Alex, and she was starting to get seriously concerned. When William relaxed fully into his chair and his eyes slipped shut, Kelly reached for her phone.

To her surprise, she found a few texts from Alex and J’onn, telling her that they were convening at Kara’s. Kelly leapt to her feet and grabbed her purse, sprinting for the door. She paused right before she left the room, eyes falling on William.

He appeared to be asleep, or maybe unconscious; it was hard to say. Deep down, Kelly knew that she should wake him up and bring him along but.... 

Her phone buzzed again. A text from Alex, saying that she needed her. 

“I’m sorry, William,” Kelly murmured, and ran out the door.

When she reached Kara’s apartment, she found her girlfriend sitting with Kara, Brainy, Nia, J’onn and M’gann. At the sight of Brainy, Kelly paused.

“It’s okay,” Nia said, reading her gaze. “He’s fine, he’s back, it’s....” She glanced over at her once-boyfriend. “It’s a lot to explain but he saved all of us.”

Kelly nodded, accepting it. She gave Alex a hug and a quick kiss and then perched on the arm of her chair. “You all going to fill me in on what exactly happened?” she asked, eyebrows raising.

“Lena and I got everyone out of VR,” Kara summarized. “Alex, J’onn, M’gann and Nia were all fighting the gods when they suddenly vanished.”

“Turns out, Brainy sucked them all into the Bottle and almost died in the process,” Nia added. Her hand fell onto Brainy’s knee and squeezed very gently, and Kelly raised her eyebrows a little. It was true that she _was_ a trained psychologist, but almost anyone could read in Nia and Brainy’s body language how relieved they were to be together again. 

“Lex took the Bottle,” Brainy finished in a low, dull voice. “Which means he is now on the loose with multiple gods in his control.”

“Speaking of which,” M’Gann put in. “J’onn and I are going to do a sweep of the city, just to keep our eyes open. If we catch sight of Lex or anything else that speaks of trouble, we will let you know.”

J’onn nodded his agreement. “Stay safe, all of you,” he added. “Stay in touch.”

Kara nodded. “Okay,” she said. “Thank you.” 

They swept out of the door and Kara sat back in her chair, reaching for her phone. A moment later she sprang to her feet. “Oh crap, _William!_ ”

Kelly opened her mouth, ready to explain to Kara where William was and that he was fine, but Kara was already standing up with her phone pressed to her ear, calling her boyfriend back. 

“Hey,” Alex said, drawing her attention away. “What happened to you, while the rest of us were fighting?”

“William actually showed up,” Kelly confessed. She reached for her girlfriend’s hand, relieved that everyone was in one piece and that they were together again. “Eve shot him, but he stayed out of the hospital because he was worried Kara wasn’t okay.” She shook her head, letting out a breath. “I don’t know if _he’s_ okay, Alex. This would all be so much easier if he knew the truth about all of us.”

Alex nodded. “I know. And I know that Kara wants to tell him. She just feels like he’s already in so much danger. What happens when he knows and Lex Luthor goes after him because of it?”

Kelly shrugged, dubious. “Like you just said, William is already a target. Knowledge _can_ be dangerous, but there’s also some safety in it. Besides,” she wrinkled her nose a little, apologetic, “I _may_ have brought him to the Tower this afternoon and told him I was involved with the Superfriends.”

Alex’s eyebrows rose. “Oh.”

“I’m sorry,” Kelly winced. “I’m really sorry. But I felt like it was the right thing to do. Besides, he was just wandering the streets with nowhere to go. I needed to make sure he was secure.”

Alex opened her mouth, but Kara came over at that moment. “William’s on his way,” she said. 

“You sure it’s smart, having him come here?” Alex asked, dubious.

Kelly felt a surge of guilt. “I shouldn’t have left him in the Tower. I just...” she reached over and covered Alex’s hand, biting her lip a little. “I needed to see if you were okay. I didn’t even think about anyone else.”

“It’s fine,” Kara told her quickly. “It’s fine. It’s not as if William doesn’t already know we’re associated with superhero stuff. I mean, Kelly, you literally took him to the Tower-”

Kelly felt another wave of guilt, this one for a different reason, and opened her mouth to apologize again. 

“Which I’m actually glad you did,” Kara pressed on quickly. “I’m glad he was safe, at least for a little while. My point is, having him here and protected by all of us is better than leaving him on his own, even if he _does_ get a little suspicious about the whole superhero thing.”

It was a valid point. And soon enough it was a moot point, because William showed up. Kelly watched him throw his arms around Kara and let out a breath, glad that he was, most likely, in a more settled state of mind. She hadn’t liked not being able to tell him for sure that Kara was alright, or where she was, without revealing anything about Supergirl.

Kara returned to their seats and William took a step forward. Kelly frowned, peering at him a little closer. Was it just her, or was the stain of dried blood on his chest... spreading?

It wasn’t just her, apparently. “Hang on,” Nia spoke up. “Are you bleeding?”

It was about then that William collapsed.

Kelly ended up going with Kara to the hospital, following along in a car. She figured that, at the very least, she could back up Supergirl’s story about finding William bleeding out on the side of the road. Besides, she was actually concerned about him. And, with the direction that this whole situation was going, Kelly didn’t see herself being much use to anyone. Alex, Kara, J’onn, Nia, M’gann, Brainy.... they’d all be needed to fight against Lex and his Bottled gods. 

Kelly? Well, she was pretty good at emotional support and keeping people company in hospitals. 

_**Kara**_

Maybe it made her an awful sort-of-girlfriend, but William wasn’t the first thing on Kara’s mind. Granted... she _was_ fighting three gods simultaneously and trying to shut down a worldwide VR session in order to save the world, but still.

Once everyone (including Brainy, though that was a whole other story) had collected inside of Kara’s apartment, though, the blond checked her phone and remembered William. As J’onn and M’Gann offered to do the preliminary sweep of the city, Kara quickly called him back.

“Kara!” he almost shouted into the phone, relief incredibly evident in his voice. Kara felt a strange wave of guilt, mixed with a healthy dose of her own relief, wash over her. 

“Thank God, I was so worried about you,” William went on, sounding harried.

Kara bit her lip. “Hey, I’m fine, I’m fine,” she said. “Um, I’ve been...” She glanced around at the ragtag group of heroes spread across her living room, and remembered once again that William didn’t know about any of this. “Hiding..?”

“Yeah, me too,” William replied. “Where are you right now? I’ll come to you.”

Kara frowned. The last time she had seen William, he was bleeding out of a gunshot wound that had come literal _centimeters_ from hitting something vital. “Um, aren’t you in the hospital right now?” she asked, maybe a little harsher than intended. She couldn’t help it; for starters, she was stressed beyond belief at their whole situation, but she was also really worried about him. Now that she’d remembered him, anyway.

“How did you know I-” William started, and Kara realized her mistake.

“Lena,” she said, cutting him off. “Lena... contacted me. Told me what happened with Eve.” It was a weak excuse, sure, but she’d given weaker.

William was stubborn about going to a hospital, so Kara gave in and told him where she was. 

“You sure it’s smart, having him come here?” Alex said when her sister had sat back down, fidgeting anxiously with her phone. 

“I shouldn’t have left him in the Tower,” Kelly cringed. She reached over and covered Alex’s hand with her own. “I just needed to see if you were okay; I didn’t even think about anyone else.”

“It’s fine,” Kara said in response to both of them. “It’s fine. It’s not as if William doesn’t already know we’re associated with superhero stuff. I mean, Kelly, you literally took him to the Tower, which-” She held up her hand to stop Kelly’s protest (or apology). “I’m actually glad you did. I’m glad he was safe, at least for a little while. My point is, having him here and protected by all of us is better than leaving him on his own, even if he _does_ get a little suspicious about the whole superhero thing.”

Brainy lifted his head. “The chances of him focusing on the connection between you and Supergirl, given everything else that’s going on, are slim,” he reported in the same, dull, exhausted voice he’d used since Nia had saved him from Leviathan’s ship. “And the chances that he would be safer around us than anywhere else are, in fact, quite high.”

Kara nodded. “There. See? It’s going to be fine.”

Not long after, William was knocking on the door and Kara was letting him in. He grabbed her in a hug immediately upon sight and Kara felt something squeeze in her chest. She had been worried for him, sure, but he had been.... _terrified_. She thought back to the moment when she’d found him lying on the ground, shot, and how one of the first things out of his mouth was that he needed to make sure that she was ok.

_Her_ , who’d just left him in Lena’s hands. Apparently her.... friend? Frenemy? Apparently Lena hadn’t done a great job making sure he got to the hospital alright. 

But he was safe now. Or he was, at least, until Kara was sitting down and urging him to do the same. Nia finally looked up and took in the sight of the ragged investigate journalist. “Hey, Willi- hang on, are you bleeding?”

Kara felt panic tense in her stomach. She was walking on a live wire today, and those were _not_ words she particularly wanted to hear.

When she looked up, she saw that Nia was right. William was staring down at his chest with a sort of muted confusion, and the blood stain on his shirt which Kara had thought was all old and dry was starting to spread. 

Kara hovered a bit out of her chair, unsure of what to do. “William?” 

William met her gaze for a brief moment and then his knees gave out. Kara was across the room in a heartbeat, catching him around the waist and making sure he didn’t hit the ground. “Alex, what do I do?” she asked frantically, looking to the more medically inclined Danvers sister for guidance. 

“I-” Alex, flustered, looked around her. “Brainy, Nia, up. We have to get him laid out.”

They affixed William on the couch and Kara pulled open his shirt again. At least part of the bullet wound had definitely reopened, which wasn’t surprising, considering she’d sealed everything with _heat vision_. Alex skimmed William’s chest with a practiced eye. “We have to take him to a hospital,” she decided. “There’s no way I’m stitching him up on your couch.”

“Okay,” Kara agreed, pulling William into her arms again. She wasn’t sure how’d he feel about all of this damsel-superhero-role-reversal stuff, but she’d like to think that he’d be alright with it. Besides, she didn’t have many other choices. “Then I need to go.”

“Kara, you can’t just fly in there,” Nia spoke up. She and Brainy had moved off the couch to give William room and were standing behind Alex’s abandoned chair, out of the way. “You’re going to have to go through the front door like everyone else, and give an explanation for what happened.”

“No I’m not,” Kara countered. “I say that I found him in the street, or something! They’re not going to turn down _Supergirl_ and a guy with a _hole in his chest_.”

She took off. 

_**William**_

When William woke up, he found himself in the hospital with a clean white bandage across his chest and Kelly sitting in the chair by his beside.

“Hey,” she said, giving him a smile. “How do you feel?”

William gazed around him, brain dazed with pain meds. “Better...” he mumbled. “Where’s-?”

“Kara?” Kelly guessed, her smile turning a bit more teasing. 

He didn’t smile back. Sure, William understood that maybe he was being a bit possessive or overprotective or _whatever_ over Kara, but he would have thought that she would have at least been there after he’d gotten shot. 

She _had_ been worried about him, right? When she’d hugged him in her apartment he’d felt how tightly she held on to him. If that wasn’t worry he didn’t know what it could be.

“She’s...” Kelly broke off and her smile dipped. “She had something that she... had to do.”

William stared at her, uncomprehending. “So she’s... not here?”

“No,” Kelly confirmed. “I’m sorry, William. She really wanted to be.”

Now that right there- that didn’t make any sense. Because if Kara had really wanted to be there, she would have. It wasn’t as if they had work to rush off to. The city was falling apart. Where else had she needed to be but here?

Was he being selfish?

Still, it stung a bit. If it had been _Kara_ lying in the hospital, he would have been there, probably with her favorite scones in hand. 

“Kelly, where is she?” he asked. “The truth, please.”

The smile was completely gone. “I can’t tell you, William. I’m really sorry, I am, but... it’s not my place.”

William stared at her, uncomprehending. Kelly looked back at him, her eyes filled with sympathy. William changed the subject. “How did I get here?” he asked, trying not to sound as sullen as he felt.

“Uh....” Kelly screwed up her mouth a little and William looked at her incredulously. She couldn’t even tell him _that_?

“We... drove you,” Kelly decided on finally. “I mean, _I_ drove you. To the hospital. When the staff saw that you’d been shot, they were pretty eager to give us a hand.” She shook her head, eyes flickering shut. “William, I really _am_ sorry that Kara isn’t here right now.” 

She reached out and put her hand on top of his, giving it a light squeeze. “I know I’m... not Kara,” she went on. “But I really _do_ care whether or not you’re alright. And if there’s anything you need, or anything you need to talk about, I’m here for you.”

William’s brow furrowed. He was, in a weird way, glad that he was certain that Kelly wasn’t interested in guys, because otherwise this would have come off as a little bit romantic. But it wasn’t, and he was relieved about that. “Thank you, Kelly,” he said, smiling a little. “I appreciate that.”

Kelly nodded at him, giving his hand one last squeeze before getting to her feet with a stretch. “I’m going to get us some coffee, okay?” she said, starting to head out of the room. “If anything happens, there’s a nurse call button right by your bed there.”

William nodded, letting his head fall backward with a deep sigh. 

Kelly hadn’t been gone for more than two minutes when the door was thrown open again and Kara burst in. “William!” she cried, eyes wide as she rushed over to his bedside.

“Kara,” William replied. His eyebrows crunched and he glanced behind her. “Did Kelly-?”

“She told me you were up,” Kara confirmed. She took a quick seat in the chair that Kelly had abandoned and peered at William, a small crease in her nose. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you woke up.”

“How did you get here so fast?” William asked, bewildered. This day had been so odd. The things that he’d found out about Kelly and Alex and the Superfriends had clicked some more pieces into place, but Kara was still a complete enigma. “Kelly just left a few minutes ago.”

“Uhhh....” Kara blinked a few times. “I was.... close. Kelly drove you here but I, um, followed. In my... car. And I got stuck in traffic...?”

William raised his eyebrow. “Traffic.”

“Yes...?”

“Traffic that Kelly _didn't_ get stuck in? Why didn’t you just come in her car?” He shook his head. “Kara, I’m sorry. But I just... I feel like you’re not telling me the whole story right now. That _none_ of you are. I mean, did you know that Kelly and Alex work with the Superfriends and have this- this secret hideout called the Tower?”

“I was... aware of that, yeah,” Kara said in a small voice. She looked down at her lap and fiddled with her fingers. “The truth is, William... I haven’t been completely honest with you. And I’m really sorry about that.”

Her jaw tightened and for a second William thought that he saw tears glitter in her eyes. He pushed himself upright as best he could and reached for her hand. “Hey, hey, Kara... it’s alright. I’m not mad at you.”

Kara met his eyes and smiled ruthfully. “You’re a _really_ great guy, William,” she told him honestly. “I honestly don’t know if I’ve met a guy quite as great as you. I’ve put you through... _so much_ , with all of these stories I’ve thrown at you and the- the things I’ve hidden from you, and you don’t even- you don’t even get upset.”

William’s theory that she was crying was confirmed when her eyes spilled over. She wiped quickly at her cheeks but William caught at her other hand. “Hey,” he said, squeezing her fingers. “Look, Kara... I really do believe that anything you’ve hidden from me; you’ve done it for the right reason. Whether it’s to keep me protected or- or _whatever_ the case may be... I trust you. And I trust that you’ll tell me the truth when you’re ready.”

Kara sniffed and offered him a smile and a return squeeze. “Thank you,” she said quietly. 

There was the sound of shouting from the street outside and William frowned, pushing himself upright a little farther, trying to see out the window. Kara let go of his hands and strode across the room to peer outside. She turned back to William, smiling apologetically. “I have to go.”

“Go where?” William asked, confused.

Kara let out a breath, holding out her hands helplessly. “You know how I was just telling you I’m hiding something from you? Well... I think it’s time you know the truth.”

The door swung open and Kelly stepped back in with two cups of coffee. “Uh, Kara,” she said, not seeming to realize she’d just interrupted a pretty vital moment. “There’s some... commotion outside.”

“I know, I’m going,” Kara told her. She sent William and wry grin and then threw herself through the closed window.

The cry of “Kara!” burst out of William’s mouth and he pulled himself out of bed, running towards the broken window. 

A figure rose up in front of him, glasses-free and blond hair blowing around her leather-clad shoulders. Supergirl smiled at him, and William’s mouth fell open.

_How had he never seen it before?_

Kara Danvers.... was _Supergirl_.


End file.
